1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an inlet screw assembly for a pneumatic tool, and more particularly to a 360° rotatable inlet screw assembly, including a fixing base, an inlet screw and C-shaped retainer. The inlet screw assembly is set in an inlet hole of a pneumatic tool for enabling the inlet screw to rotate relative to the fixing base.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
When in use, the pneumatic tool always needs to be moved to different positions according to needs. Thereby the pneumatic tool is usually equipped with an inlet screw which is rotatable relative to the body of the pneumatic tool in order to improve applicability of the pneumatic tool when the inlet screw is being connected to an air resource.
A conventional rotatable inlet screw assembly for a pneumatic tool 10 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the pneumatic tool 10 is provided with an inlet hole 11 and a positioning hole 12 transversely passing through the inlet hole 11. At a bottom of the pneumatic tool 10 is fixed a vent cap 13, and in the inlet hole 11 is disposed an inlet screw 14. An annular groove 15 and a positioning groove 16 are formed on and located adjacent to a first end of the inlet screw 14, respectively. The first end of the inlet screw 14 with the annular groove 15 and the positioning groove 16 passes through the vent cap 13. An O-shaped ring 17 is set in the annular groove 15, and the positioning groove 16 is aligned to the positioning hole 12 of the pneumatic tool. Then, a spring pin 18 is inserted in the positioning groove 16 of the inlet screw 14 after passing through the positioning hole 12 of the pneumatic tool 10. By such arrangements, the inlet screw 14 is allowed to rotate relative to the spring pin 18 by means of the positioning groove 16.
However, the disadvantages of this conventional inlet screw assembly are not difficult to be found in real application. With reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, since the inlet screw 14 is single-side supported by the spring pin 18 and disposed in the inlet hole 11 of the pneumatic tool 10. When the inlet screw 14 is connected to air supply (not shown), the inlet hole 11 is injected with air and the inner pressure is increased. In this case, the inlet screw 14 will be caused to swing and rotate about the spring pin 18 (which works as a fulcrum). As a result, the spring pin 18 is pressed by the inlet screw 14 and the pressure force is finally exerted on the inner wall of the through hole 11 of the pneumatic tool 10. Thereby, the rotation of the inlet screw 14 relative to the spring pin 18 will be unsmooth.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional rotatable inlet screw assembly of a pneumatic tool.